Techno Primer

Awsome Concept Gadgets

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:33:00 +0000

E-Paper Slap Bracelet
designed by: Chocoloate Ageny

I bet everyone have seen a slap bracelet before, it is usually made of thin aluminum wrap in fabric that are sometimes fashioned into a watch. Basing on that design,Chocolate agency came up with a mini multimedia device that snaps on with a slap. The surface of this cool gadget is made up entirely of E-Paper. It is thin, power efficient and display high contrast images. Users can adjust its lenght by adding magnetic snaps to its ends. Where do it gets its power from? via kinetic energy, this gagdget will recharge itself while your arms are in motion, Isn't that cool!

Napkin PC
Designed by: Avery Holleman

I woudn't have imagine that table napkins would come this far, of course, several napkin concepts was conceive last year, but this is the first time i saw a napkin concept which utilizes RF technology and e-ink. The gadget is made up of three components, the napkin interface which is a multi touch input e-paper surface, pens which wirelessly powers the napkin interface when it comes within range and the base which is actually a mini computer.

D:Scribe
Designed by: Reuben Png

This is certainly not your ordinary pen. It is actually a digital fountain pen, this cool gadget allows users to send SMS and and email message from paper, It does away with a keypad and allows users to focus on communicating anywhere provided you have a bluetooth enabled phone and a surface to write on. It can record everything you write which you will be able to access on a computer. Just write a message then circle the person's name then viola! This digital pen also works well with genius.

Cool Concept Computers

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:44:00 +0000

It seems unreal how technology have brought us so far, from the wardrobe size computers of the past to the personal computers, laptops and palmtops of today. As time goes by computers are more becoming advance and highly efficient tools, it arguably symbolizes advance technology. In the present era mavericks are coming up with cool, sleek and ergonomic designs, although we might not see some of this designs in the present market yet, but it's the thought of having it that makes us feel excited about the future.

- B-MEMBRANE, designed by: Won-Seok Lee
Amixture of sleek design, functionality and style. This concept replaces the need for a monitor, substituting it with an adjustable projector. It sports a touch screen virtual keyboard which only appears when you are in need of it.

- HP Lim Concept Computer, designed by: HP
LiM (Less is More) This cool design features a slide down 19 inch OLED touch screen, wireless keyboard, virtual track pad. Users will certainly experience easy navigation and a more ergonomic experience.

- Disposable Paper Laptops, designed by: Je Sung Park
Made out of recyled paper instead of metal or plastic. The design is sleek, light weight, environment friendly and cheaper than its conventional counterpart.

[yanko]

myLot User Profile

Motorola's New Droid Smartphone is Causing Controversy

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:02:00 +0000

The launch of Motorola's Droid Smart Phone which went on sale last week for $199.99 is not only causing attention but controversies as well. It's getting so much attention to the point that BlackBerry makers announced the revamped of its BlackBerry Storm 2 and Bold 9700.

According to majority of mobile reviews, Motorola Droid sporting a 3.7-inch screen which is not only bigger than the iPhone's but at 854x480 with a 16:9 aspect ratio, also boasts a better resolution, a speedy processor and a 5 mega pixel camera was dubbed as second best to Apple iPhone, an honor previously tagged to Palm Pre.

Controversy tagged along with the launch of this smart phone. Recently, a christmas themed ads by Verizon calling iPhone a "misfit toy" caused AT&T to sue Verizon. AT&T believes that the ads, titled "Naughty Nice," Misfit Toys," and "Blue Christmas" is misleading consumers into believing that AT&T's customers have no coverage and won't be able to use their devices when they are outside of the AT&T's 3G coverage area.

Here are the Ads:

MSN is having a facelift

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:45:00 +0000

Microsoft is on its way to give MSN a major facelift. The software giant is set to give its web portal a major upgrade freshening up its user interface with a cool new look. This major change is a bold move to declutter MSN's previous homepage. Although the update is not ready for the public and on its beta stages, Microsoft is giving everyone a taste of whats coming. You can preview and experience the new MSN BETA here.

According to MSN this is just a first step in a systematic process to update the entire MSN network. One would notice a prominent change in MSN's homepage, the trademark blue background was replace by a white one, users would also noticed the absence of the blue links to Microsoft-owned destinations focusing on everything from Autos to Real Estate/Rentals to Horoscopes to TV. Instead they replaced it with a sleeker look with a horizontal navigation bar containing drop-down menus that cover the topics of News, Finance, Entertainment, Sports, and Lifestyle. Social networks Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft's own Windows Live are integrated into the lower right-hand side of the homepage.

Video is a bigger part of the revamped MSN, with content now featured more prominently on the homepage and on other MSN pages such as Local Edition. MSN says that it will offer video from a deeper catalog of 300 sources, including Hulu, National Geographic, and Fox Entertainment Group

MSN's new homepage is expected to go live early next year. The fact that MSN is revamping its portal just as rival Yahoo is turning up the marketing heat with an "Its You" marketing campaign is probably no coincidence. It's also likely that Microsoft's official debut of the updated MSN site will occur at roughly the same time that Yahoo integrates the Bing search engine into its portal; observers expect both things to happen early next year.

Apple is now Shipping Apple TV This Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 04:22:00 +0000

The future of television will be made available this coming week. Apple Inc. has announced that they will start shipping the much awaited Apple TV this week. The easy to use and fun gadget will wirelessly connect your Internet based videos and other content from your pc or mac to your television. Apple TV was priced at $299 and be made available in Mac stores and other authorized retailers this Thursday.

Seamlessly integrated to iTunes, Apple TV lets users choose from over 400 movies and 350 TV shows in near DVD quality, over four million songs; 5,000 music videos; 100,000 podcasts; and 20,000 audiobooks from the iTunes Store.

" Apple TV is like a DVD player for the Internet age-providing an easy and fun way to play all your favorite iTunes content from your PC or Mac on your widescreen TV. Apple TV allows you to wirelessly play your content from your PCs or Macs using your existing WiFi network as well as the newest and fastest version of WiFi-802.11n " - Phillip Schiller Apple Inc. Senior Vice President for Worldwide product Marketing

Apple TV has a 40GB hard drive that will let you store up to 50 hours of video, listen to 9,000 songs, view 25, 000 photos or a combination of each. It is capable of delivering high definition 720p output; a remote control that has a range of 30 feet; high-speed AirPort 802.11** wireless networking can auto-sync content from one computer or stream content from up to five additional computers right to your TV without any wires.

Apple TV requires iTunes 7.1 or later running on a Mac with Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later, or a Windows PC with Windows XP Home/Professional (SP2).

Blogger.com's Vulnerability to Phishing Attacks

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 02:05:00 +0000

Blogger.com was recently attacked by hackers who posted fake blogs to spread malwares. Fortinet Inc. posted an advisory in their website warning people of a malicious computer script that redirect weblog readers to a phishing site called Pharmacy Express, a phishing site that has turned up in many spam emails distributed by the Stration worm.

According to the company, genuine looking blogs are now being created and infected to host a variety of script initiated malwares. the topics of this blogs ranges from starwars, cars to furniture. Fortinet also gives an example of this sites, including a supposed fan of Honda CR450 motor car. Readers of this site might be infected with Wonka TrojanVirus.

" These are not legitimate blogs that were compromised. They appear to be deliberately set up to promote phishing, which is against our terms of service. We are investigating, and blogs found to include malicious code or promote phishing will be deleted. " - Google in a statement to CNET

Frotinet assessed this threat in its fourth highest severity ranking in a five point scale, five being the highest.

Snap Away and Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 05:52:00 +0000

Keeping updated with the latest phone technology seems impossible. Phone manufacturers are in a constant battle in developing the most advance phone they could think of, integrating the latest technology they could get their hands on. Being a fan of mobile phone technology myself, i recently search for the latest and cool phone. In the process i stumbled upon this camera phone, K810i by Sony Ericson, its their latest Cyber-shot branded mobile phone. Sony Ericsson’s megapixel digital camera gives you crisp high resolution every time and added features more common to standalone cameras which fortunately be availble in the market in the next few months.

A cool phone with a 3.2 mega pixel camera and auto focus. You don't have to worry about poor lighting anymore with its xenon flash that is usually found in stand alone digital cameras. Have a magical dark room touch with its Photo fix feature, its BestPic feature will let you snap nine photos in a second. Keep the ones you like and share it via picture message or post it in your blogs.

Other features are:

Push email - Instant email on your mobile phone, just like on your home computer. Messages are sent directly to your phone as soon as they arrive.

3 click music download - Audition and buy the Top Ten ring tones in three clicks. PlayNow™ is the fastest and easiest way to download a premium ring tone.

Music recognition - What’s that sound? Just record a few seconds of music and TrackID™ (powered by Gracenote Mobile MusicID) returns the song name, artist and album to your phone within seconds.

3G - Quick and easy access to broadband Internet. Say hello to video calls, audio and video streaming, Internet surfing, multimedia messaging and email on the go.

RSS Feeds -Use your phone to view up-to-the-minute news and other content from selected websites and blogs. Just subscribe to the feed and let it come to you.

Web Wherever - Truly mobile Internet lets you enjoy browsing the Web and manage your email effectively with the convenience of your phone, wherever you are.

Capturing the Action - Video clips are ideal for those unexpected great moments that happen when you're out there, enjoying life.

Xanga Embraces Snap Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:07:00 +0000

Perfect Market Technologies Inc. operator of Snap.com the developer of Snap preview Anywhere announces its partnership with Xanga.com a popular weblog community and blog hosting provider. The move will allow Xanga members to enjoy the features of Snap preview Anywhere which currently is the fastest growing website enhancement service that delivers instant site previews. With Snap Preview Anywhere, visitors to a Xanga weblog now have access to instant previews of linked sites, adding to Xanga’s already highly-customizable, user-generated community.

" Our users have really embraced Snap Previews, the response has been tremendous less than 0.1% of our millions of users have opted-out of having Snap Previews on their Xanga sites. " - Bob Hiler VP of Advertising Xanga.com

Snap Preview Anywhere gives website owners, bloggers and web publishers the ability to leverage Snap.com’s award-winning visual search technology and massive library of webpage images for use on their own sites. By rolling over any link on a site that contains the Snap Preview Anywhere code, users instantly see a floating window with a visual preview of the corresponding webpage. This allows users to quickly decide if a site is worth visiting before actually clicking on the link.

" We’re thrilled that Xanga has chosen to provide their users with the visual benefits of Snap Preview Anywhere. We hear from many users daily who have become completely dependent on being able to roll over links to see site previews, adding another dimension to the web browsing experience. " - Tom McGovern CEO of Perfect Market Technologies

Since its introduction in November, Snap Preview Anywhere has seen rapid adoption, serving more than 350 million previews on more than 700,000 websites, and continues to grow exponentially every day.

eSnips Announced a New Music Widget and Extends Free Storage from 1GB to 5GB

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:36:00 +0000

eSnips, the first global social sharing site that lets its users to share, publish, promote or sell their own creations online announced today that close to a dozen new user-generated online music communities have been created, including Electronic, Hindi, Reggae, Metal, Gothic/Industrial, Hip-Hop/Rap, Elvis, Jazz, and Blues, as well as new Music Widgets, Players and Playlists that allow users to upload their own music, distribute and promote it on other sites.

This new announcement follows the fast-growing DJ and Karaoke MicroPortal community launches in the last few months. In addition, eSnips is extending its FREE storage for existing and new users from 1 GB to 5 GB, which makes it a perfect one-stop site for music creators and lovers alike. With the use of eSnips widgets, musicians can now virally spread their music to sites and blogs other than their own, increasing the effectiveness of their distribution tenfold. Because music files are actually stored on eSnips, widgets can be created with only a few clicks from a variety of cool, genre-specific player and playlist styles without leaving the site.

" eSnips is about enabling people not only to share their passions but also to promote them. Our first step was to enable people to easily share their creations. The new music widgets will now provide people with an easy, viral, zero-cost way to promote their work across the web." - Yael Elish, CEO of eSnips

Another new feature that promotes music is eSnips customizable, animated email messages. Users can search for compelling music and send entire sets of songs and files they collect with one simple click. Not only do the new music widgets and playlists work together, but with email integrated as well, users can send their favorite songs to friends without the bandwidth issues of large email attachments.

This powerful combination of playlist and music creation makes hosting original music on eSnips incredibly appealing to musicians and those interested in hearing independent and user-generated music.Using widgets, YouTube and flickr enabled anyone to play video and share hosted photos on their sites and individual blogs.

Microsoft Acquired a Medical Search Company

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:23:00 +0000

Microsoft Corp. announced that it has agreed to acquire Medstory a privately held medical search company based in Foster City California that develops intelligent web search technology specifically for health information.

" To us, providing intelligent search means supporting an understanding of both a user's intent behind a search and the results that are delivered. For a field like health and medicine, we believe that search engines should deliver more to users than just a list of Web pages. Our approach is to try to synthesize the meaning of every user search in the context of health and medicine, and then share this knowledge with the user to help refine and guide their search. " - Medstory

The company's employees will join with the recently formed Health Solutions Group of Microsoft that will manage product development and delivery. The amount of the acquisition was not disclosed by both companies as part of their agreement.

" At Microsoft, we are focused on enabling people to make the best decisions. We were impressed with the ability of Medstory’s unique technology to organize and surface the most relevant online health content, which empowers consumers who are trying to find the right information about an important life event " - Peter Neupert, Corporate Vice President for health strategy and leader of the Health Solutions Group.

Unlike results from most search engines, Medstory’s results are based on intuitive search technology, which provides pre qualified information to consumers and health professionals conducting health-related research. This unique approach provides users with intelligent guides to help refine and better target their searches. Users receive organized content that is more relevant to their search criteria and that enables better health-related decisions.

" Instead of trying to force people to think in terms of the way a computer searches, we’re enabling computers to more intuitively conduct searches in the way that people think. With Microsoft’s global reach and experience, I look forward to this soon becoming a standard for online searches in health and medicine. ” - Dr. Alain Rapport, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and founder of Medstory

Dr. Rappaport will assume the role of general manager of health search in the Health Solutions Group after the acquisition closes.

Fastest Graphic Memory by Samsung

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:14:00 +0000

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology and the leading producer of high-end graphics memory, announced yesterday that it has increased the data transfer speed of the world’s fastest graphics memory ? GDDR4 (series four of graphics double-data-rate memory) ? by? two-thirds. Graphics memory processes video images in desktop PCs, notebooks and workstations to move huge volumes of video simultaneously.

" Our new GDDR4 memory will add even more zip in video applications, making gaming, computer-aided design and video editing a lot faster than ever before. This will enable ultra-smooth movements in animation, making games incredibly realistic, resulting in a truly immersive experience. " - Mueez Deen, marketing director, graphics memory, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc

Using 80-nanometer production technology, the 4Gb/s (2.0GHz) is 66 percent faster than today’s fastest commercially available memory ? a 2.4Gb/s GDDR4. The new 4Gb/s graphics memory, offered in a 512Mb density, has a 32-bit data bus configuration.? GDDR4 uses JEDEC-approved standards for signal noise reduction to help attain the highest possible speed.Manufacturers of graphics processing units (GPUs) and video cards have expressed a high degree of interest in the new memory, which is ready for customer sampling this month.Analysts expect GDDR4 to significantly boost demand for the high-performance memory market segment over the next 12-18 months.

Mybloglog Apologize and Reinstated ShoeMoney

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 04:35:00 +0000

I know most of you have heard this and probably have followed the whole expose. It all started out when Shoemoney a notable blogger and one of the prominent members of Mybloglog got banned for posting a hack that could allow users to surf the web and impersonate other members identity(including mybloglog executives) by altering their cookies.txt file to match another user's unique MBL ID.

" We banned him for publishing other people’s data on the site and urging readers to spoof them. On what planet is that not a bannable offense? " - Eric Marcouliier

The only sad thing about this is that a similar hack was posted a month before by emich in french but he was not banned as of this time.

" That is truly amazing and embarrassing that someone sent us details of this hack a month ago. I’ve checked my historical email (I receive all the incoming emails) and cannot find it, so it either got spam filtered or lost during my transition to a new laptop. Neither is really no excuse. As you may have heard, we’re hiring a community manager who will help ensure that this sort of oversight will not happen in the future. " - Eric Marcouliier

It's still an ongoing debate about whether Shoemoney should have been banned in the first place since Mybloglog don't have any TOS regarding this kind of act and the punishment they will impose for those who will violate it. A recent post by Eric shows a plan to implement a rule that will safeguard users and mybloglog against spam attacks. They also apologize and reinstated Shoemoney yesterday, that's one of the reason why Shoemoney's photo is featured in the members area.

Mozilla Fixes Bugs on Firefox

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 05:05:00 +0000

Mozilla Corp. updated its Firefox Internet browser last friday patching up 14 vulnerabilities, three of them is considered critical. Mozilla pushed out the new versions without fixing several flaws. Michael Zelewski, a polish reseracher disclosed some series of bugs in FireFox this month. Firefox 2.0.0.2 and Firefox 1.5.0.10, which originally were to release on Wednesday, were delayed to patch a series of bugs.

" Neither of those will make this release. It is important that we get the security fixes we have into the hands of our users "- Daniel Veditz, Mozilla security

The most serious of the bugs that was not fix according to Zelewski is a memory corruption flaw that could let attackers inject code remotely into Firefox-equipped machines simply by duping users into visiting a malicious Web page. " Firefox is susceptible to a seemingly pretty nasty, and apparently easily exploitable, memory corruption vulnerability ". Another unfixed bug noticed by Zelewski could give cybercriminals a leg up when running phishing attacks.

" Successfully exploiting this issue may allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary machine code in the context of the affected application. This could facilitate the remote compromise of affected computers. " - Symantec Corp.

Mozilla posted there bug fixes on Firefox here. Firefox 1.5.0.10 is nearly at the end of its supported lifespan. After April 24, Mozilla will stop issuing security and stability updates to that edition.

Free Web-Based Video Editing by Photobucket

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 06:03:00 +0000

Photobucket an online personal media company where over 35 million people create, manage and share their personal digital media, today announced the launch of a new service, featuring lightweight, web-based video remix and editing technology powered by Adobe Systems Incorporated. The Adobe web-based video remix and editing technology is available online as part of the Photobucket user experience, and is currently offered as a Beta application. Photobucket users can now combine images, videos, text, and music to create personalized videos or “mashups” of content from their Photobucket albums, without requiring any additional downloads.

“At Photobucket we’re committed to helping our users get the most out of their personal media, and have fun doing so,” said Alex Welch, CEO, Photobucket. “Collaborating with Adobe gives our millions of users a simple way to create mashups that showcase their personality and creativity. Users can either broadcast these mashups widely, or share with a small group of friends and family.”

“ For the tens of millions of people who place their videos online, it is no longer good enough to simply post and share them – people want their videos to be compelling compared to other content,” said John Loiacono, senior vice president, of the Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. “Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology gives consumers an easy-to-use, ‘no experience required’ approach to web-based video editing that will help their stories stand out. We have fully integrated our tools into the Photobucket experience, enabling anyone who has Adobe® Flash® Player installed on their PC to use it. ”

Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology is a Flash-based application built using Adobe Flex™, and delivers high quality video editing capabilities pioneered by Adobe Premiere® Pro and Premiere Elements. Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology offers a simplified interface, introducing consumers to video editing they can quickly master.

Using Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology, Photobucket users can combine images and video with captions, bubbles, frames, transitions, music, and other effects by dragging and dropping content to a sceneline. Clips and content can be reordered, trimmed, and split directly in the sceneline in a web-based environment. Users can work with content from their own albums, or access over 2.5 billion publicly-shared images and videos on Photobucket.

Once editing is complete, the resulting video mashup can be embedded into any web page, blog, or social network profile by copying and pasting a snippet of HTML code. The mashup can also be shared with family and friends using Photobucket’s built-in sharing tools. Photobucket recently launched features to enable quick and easy posting to blog services and social networks such as Blogger, Xanga, LiveJournal, MySpace, Bebo, and Facebook directly from within a Photobucket album.

Photobucket launched video hosting as an integral part of its service offering in April of 2006. Now, more than 35,000 videos are uploaded to Photobucket albums every day, making Photobucket the third largest video hosting site after YouTube and MySpace. Photobucket video is free to all its users, and members can upload videos in any standard video format (mpeg, avi, Divx, etc).

Adobe’s web-based video remix and editing technology is a free, lightweight, Adobe Flash based web application. It opens directly in the browser on Photobucket’s website, and requires Adobe Flash 9 to operate.

Viacom Announces its Partnership with Joost

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 04:11:00 +0000

Viacom Inc. a leading global entertainment company whos brands includes MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon announces its partnership with Joost (formerly known as The Venice Project), the world’s first broadcast-quality Internet television service. The move was said to have rooted after Viacom demanded that Google-owned YouTube remove more than 100,000 video clips after the two firms failed to reach a distribution deal.

The Joost partnership will give Viacom something it pressed with YouTube but never received, a share of advertising revenue. Neither company disclosed the terms of the agreement, but media experts said a 65-35 split in Viacom’s favor would be reasonable. Programs will have commercial breaks, but the number of commercials in each episode will be fewer than on regular network television.

" We’re extremely pleased to be working with Joost, and couldn’t be prouder to be a key partner in the launch of the next generation in broadband video technology. We have the number one portfolio of entertainment sites in the world and unrivaled distribution on mobile devices, but we’re determined to keep pushing and growing our digital presence and bring our programming to audiences on every platform and device that they want. In addition to strong partnerships we have with traditional distributors, we will continue to seek out partners like Joost, which has created an exciting breakthrough platform that represents not only a fantastic user experience, but one that is built on a compelling and sustainable business model that respects both content creators and consumers. " - Philippe Dauman, Viacom President and Chief Executive Officer

" We built this platform from the ground up, with companies like Viacom in mind. Our platform provides scalable distribution, in a completely safe environment that protects the interest of content owners and advertisers, while delighting viewers. We’re extremely excited about this partnership and look forward to enabling Viacom to reach new audiences for its new and classic programming. " - Janus Friis, founder of Joost

The new deal will enable Viacom to recapture viewers who had been going to YouTube without Viacom's blessing to watch content such as Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" and MTV's "Pimp My Ride". Meanwhile Viacom also plans to let people post almost any video from MTV-owned websites on their own blogs and sites.

Joost will allow users to have free access to thousands of programs and channels not readily available on the Web. Through Joost, viewers can watch programming from many of Viacom’s brands on their computers through a customizable platform with advanced television viewing features such as links that lead to more information or related websites based on the content; and a variety of plug-in applications, such as instant messaging, message boards, and news tickers.

Google's Procurement of AdscapeMedia

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:57:00 +0000

According to technology site Red Hering Google has agreed to acquire Adscape Media Inc., an in-game advertising company and the developer of the world’s first dynamic in-game advertising technology. The deal was said to be worth $23 million. A Google spokesman declined to comment, saying the company's policy is not to respond to "rumor or speculation." Sources familiar with the in-game ad business said That Google's acquisition of Adscape will give Google potentially interesting patents.

“There is a whole world of difference between the form of advertising done by Google and Madison Avenue,” one source familiar with the in-game ad business said, comparing Google's familiar text-based ads to the rich media used in video games. “While everyone appreciates the dollars Google can throw around, when it comes to in-game ad experience they just don’t have it.” Adscape promises to deliver "dynamic advertisements for video games". The San Francisco based company officially launched in February 2006 with $3.2 million in funding from Atlanta’s HIG Ventures.

Though the deal is not completely closed and not yet officially confirmed by both sides, sources said the that AdScape's executive team will remain together until the start of March, at which point selected staff will move to Mountain View. Executives likely to make the move include CTO Dan Willis, Chairman Bernie Stolar, and VP of Marketing Eva Woo, but such details have yet to be confirmed.

Microsoft Fixes 20 Security Bugs

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 15:04:00 +0000

Microsoft has released its February security updates, It includes some long-awaited patches for its Office productivity suite applications. This month's Patch addresses multiple critical fixes for vulnerabilities in both Office and Microsoft's line of security products. Altogether, Microsoft patched 20 flaws with its current release.

Eleven of the patches were labeled "critical," the highest ranking in Microsoft's scoring system. Eight of the patches fix Office flaws, including six vulnerabilities in Word and one each for Excel and PowerPoint. While all of these patches are significant from a security standpoint, the patch called MS07-010 seems to be stealing the spotlight.

MS07-010 fixes a critical bug in the malware-scanning engine used by Windows OneCare, Windows Defender, and Forefront Security and Antigen products. Hackers could exploit the flaw to take complete control of a victim's PC by feeding malformed PDFs to the computer through e-mail. The flaw is of particular concern to analysts.

MS07-010 fixes a critical bug in the malware-scanning engine used by Windows OneCare, Windows Defender, and Forefront Security and Antigen products. Hackers could exploit the flaw to take complete control of a victim's PC by feeding malformed PDFs to the computer through e-mail. The flaw is of particular concern to analysts.

" This continues the trend of malware authors targeting widely deployed Microsoft business applications and services, malware authors continue to find unknown or unpatched vulnerabilities in popular applications and services which are then used in zero-day attacks, putting both business and consumer data at risk." - Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager at McAfee's Avert Labs

More on this story...

Windows Vista Prone to Hacking

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 16:01:00 +0000

Weeks after the launched of what Microsoft called as "The Most Secure Version of Windows Ever" the new Windows Vista has shown its susceptibility after both white and black hat hackers found a vulnerability with its software security. Its disappointing to know that Live OneCare an anti virus program specifically made for Windows Vista is incapable of blocking many well known viruses. McAfee another well known anti virus program also fails to block this viruses.

Symantec, developer of Norton anti virus program had predicted back in early 2006 that due do the failure of Microsoft to provide ways for antivirus programmers to fully integrate their products with Vista, many antivirus programs will have a difficulty in protecting Vista users.

Post in an underground forum made by Russian Hackers illustrates how vulnerable Vista's software security. The post describes how to implement "privilege escalation," which could bypass some Vista security measures. This hack could escalate the "privileges" of a normal Vista user into that of a "superuser," it will give him the ability to change anything he wish on the system. This could be a serious risk in a corporate environment wherein normal computer users have limited privileges, in which they cannot install programs, visit certain Web sites, etc. Seeing the serious risk of the situation, Microsoft has scrambled its "Security Response Center," which apparently is still trying to figure ways to solve the problem.

More on this story...

YouTube Reaps Reward from Google Deal

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:09:00 +0000

YouTube Inc. founders received a class A share stock now valued at $650 million when they sold the business. Chad Hurley, YouTube CEO, received 694,087 of Google stock worth about $326 million. Co-founder Steve Chen received a similar value of Google stock, including 625,366 directly owned shares and another 68,721 held in a trust. The third co founder Jawed Karim, received stock worth about $64.6 million. He left the company in early 2005 after it was launched. YouTube employees received lesser share amounts.

More on this story...

MySpace Teamed Up with Vodafone

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:58:00 +0000

Myspace, the world's leading lifestyle portal announced their tie-up with Vodafone, a renowned mobile phone network in Europe. The partnership will allow Vodafone subscribers to edit their MySpace profiles, post photos and blogs, find and add friends, send and receive MySpace message through their phones. Though existing Vodafone Live users will need to download Myspace Mobile to their handsets Vodafone assures that future phones will have a pre installed MySpace Software.

"Millions of people use MySpace as their primary means of communicating with family and friends, so it's vital we make this available on the move. This partnership brings together the world's number one lifestyle portal and the world's leading mobile operator" -Colin Digiaro, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, International, MySpace

"Today’s announcement is a great example of Vodafone empowering its customers with new, internet-based services on their Vodafone live! handsets, helping people make the most of their time, teaming up with the world’s leading online community means that people can take the MySpace experience anywhere and enjoy it anytime” - Frank H. Rövekamp, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone.

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Yahoo Search Advertising System Upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 06:15:00 +0000

A group of Yahoo executives together with a team of 30 to 40 engineers have gathered together at yahoo's search marketing unit's three "war rooms". The group convened to scrutinize an array of moving charts and graphs projected on the walls with the hope to close the wide gap with Google in the race for search advertising dollars, an incredibly lucrative and fast growing online business dominated by Google. The project was codenamed "Panama" named after the Panama Canal in South America, it is the company's new important product in years.

“It’ll be a good event if it is a nonevent,” said Brian Acton, vice president of engineering at Yahoo Search Marketing.

“I think we will be watching this closely for many Mondays, it has been and continues to be our No. 1 company priority.” said Terry S. Semel, Yahoo’s chief executive

Yahoo’s investors and advertisers, on the other hand, will be looking for something eventful to start happening, if not on Monday, then in the weeks and months after. Some analysts said that the delay of Panama is the biggest reason Yahoo shares dropped from a high of more than $35 early last year to just over $22 in October. They have since regained some ground, closing Friday at $28.77

This project is an attempt of Yahoo to place ads in front of users that are more likely to be clicked on. Yahoo gave top billing to the advertisers who were willing to bid the most to have their ads listed alongside a particular search result. Google has a different formula than of Yahoo. It ranks ads on a mix of bid prices and relevancy to the user. That leads users to click on ads more frequently, and since advertisers pay only when a user clicks on their ad, Google, on average, makes more money on every search than Yahoo does giving Google a powerful edge.

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Blinkx Launced Video Widget

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 06:44:00 +0000

Blinkx (the largest video search engine on the web) has recently launched Video Widget at DEMO 07, a new, free and simple tool that enables users to insert relevant video streams into their blogs, casual website, personal pages and fan sites with just a few clicks. The patented search technology uses speech-to-text transcription to index online video, both user-generated and commercial content, so that users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not available elsewhere.

Now, with the introduction of "blinkx it", blinkx is enabling users to become broadcasters, to harness the variety of content in its video index, and to enhance their blogs or websites with customized video channels. "Blinkx It" is easy to instal on blogs, websites and Myspace pages, user could also tap to seven million hours of content.

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Top 5 Free and Low Cost Blogging Platform

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:15:00 +0000

Blogging and building a blog has never been easier with the advent of free and low cost blogging platform. PCWorld (Web's trusted resource for management-level buyers and users of technology products) has recently tested and evaluated hosted blog platforms to find out which is the most easiest to use. They build blogs with each program, tested how quick the application will allow someone to create and update posts, how easy it is to use their tools, the ability to upload images is also one of their consideration. In addition, they assessed the quality of the templates provided, and how easy to customize it.

After their Thorough and rigorous evaluation they choose the new version Blogger as their top pick.

"A recent update has made Blogger an extremely versatile platform, with templates that you can easily modify to include advertisements, RSS feeds, and even third-party HTML applications, such as a slide-show viewer. All of the controls and features are arranged in a simple interface that's easy to work with. The only drawback: Your photo galleries must be hosted externally by a service such as Flickr or Picasa."

WordPress came in second in their choice, Six Apart's movable type blog platform TypePad came in third followed by Lycos Tripod blog service and Squarespace.

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Blogging platforms features and comaparison

Google, Top Brand...Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 15:23:00 +0000

For the second year in a row Google tops the annual survey done by brandchannel , an online branding magazine which asked 3,625 visitors in the last quarter of 2006 to name the brand with the most global impact. The result may have brought about by google's the expansion of its online advertising program, a move to bring its email service to mobile devices and the launced of its blogging services last year. The $ 900 million deal with News Corporation to provide service to sites such as MySpace, the purchase of the video site YouTube for $1.65 billion and perhaps the most noteworthy brand achievement last year was the addition of the verb "to google" in two major English-language dictionaries may have made a big impact in helping google top the list. Computer giant Apple barely made it to second as video site YouTube came in third. Wikipedia and Starbuck came in fourth and fifth respectively.

Good News for Typepad Users

noreply@blogger.com (Unfathomed_Psyche) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:33:00 +0000

Simply Hired, a site which operates the world's largest job search engine has recently announced the released of its Job-a-matic tool that will give an oppotunity to bloggers and web publishers the option to add paid job listings to their sites and profit from it. Simply Hired will partner with blogging technology leader Six Apart to offer Job-a-matic to users of TypePad, Six Apart's popular hosted blogging service. TypePad users will be able to add paid job listings to their sites through the TypePad Widget program. Six Apart will actively promote Job-a-matic to this large, diverse blogger community, enabling publishers large and small to derive more revenue from their blogs.

"TypePad bloggers produce some of the best and most popular blogs around, and they deserve to be rewarded for the work they put into their blogs," said Michael Sippey, vice president and TypePad general manager for Six Apart. "Together with Simply Hired, we can now provide our members with an entirely new way to monetize their blogs. Job content is information that blog readers will truly value, so our members can boost both their revenue and the loyalty of their audiences by joining the Job-a-matic publisher network."

The other sites and bloggers that have joined the Job-a-matic Publisher network are:
- FeedBurner
- Guy Kawasaki (http://blog.guykawasaki.com )
- John Battelle (http://battellemedia.com )
- Joel Cheesman (http://www.cheezhead.com
- Jeff Jarvis (http://www.buzzmachine.com )
- O'Reilly Media (www.oreilly.com )

Press Release Sources:

-Simply Hired Brings Paid Job Listings to Bloggers, Web Sites With ... Yahoo! News (press release)
-Simply Hired Links Blogs To Jobs WebProNews
-Simply Hired Brings Paid Job Listings to Bloggers, Web Sites With ... Earthtimes.org